Honda’s HondaJet

Honda engineers worked with the theory that each passenger needs about 60 cubic feet. Passenger legroom is generous.

Tuesday, December 4, 2012 - 12:30pm

It’s been a long wait.

The HondaJet grew out of a research project that began in 1986. The all-composite MH02 featured an above-wing engine mount and a forward-swept wing. It first flew in 1993. With that research in hand, Honda went back to the drawing board and 10 years later the first HondaJet prototype took to the skies. Today, the 420-knot, $4.5 million entry-level twinjet is well on its way to certification in 2013. The manufacturer expects the five- to six-passenger jet to be certified for single-pilot operation and to have a range of 1,180 nautical miles, an initial climb rate of 4,000 feet per minute and a maximum altitude of 43,000 feet. Honda claims the aircraft has 15 to 20 percent greater fuel efficiency and faster speed than competing models.

A fleet of conformal test aircraft (that look almost identical to the prototype that has been flying since 2003) is currently racking up hours. More than 600 employees are working at Honda’s massive 83-acre Greensboro, N.C. campus, which has 500,000 square feet under roof and should be able to turn out 70 to 100 aircraft per year when production is fully ramped up. The first two years of production are already sold out.

The HondaJet uses a carbon fiber composite fuselage mated to metal wings. The appearance is unconventional, featuring over-wing engine pylons, thin natural laminar flow wings, porpoise-like nose and raked cockpit side windows. The design yields more speed; more luggage space; and a larger, quieter cabin with less vibration. The over-wing pylons reduce drag and eliminate the need to contour the aft fuselage. Honda is currently showing one cabin configuration: a single-place, side-facing divan opposite the entry door followed by club-four seating and an aft-cabin lavatory with privacy door. The aircraft’s interior features upscale automotive accents, such as high-tech plating that runs the length of the cabin.

Other possible configurations include substituting a small refreshment area, cabinets and a closet for the single, side-facing seat; and an all-forward-facing seat layout for air-taxi operations. The color/fabric palette for the interior will initially consist of four to five possible combinations. Honda is using high-performance computers and software to create virtual-reality, high-resolution pictures of the cabin in different colors and fabrics and is continuing to collect customer preference data.

Honda engineers worked with the theory that each passenger requires about 60 cubic feet and that the seat pitch angle needs to be such that passengers’ feet don’t overlap when they’re seated in the club-four facing seats. Passenger legroom is generous.

Key suppliers for the HondaJet include GE Honda Aero Engines for the HF120 engines (2,050 pounds of thrust each); Garmin for the G3000 touchscreen avionics; and Emteq for its SkyPro HD IFE and cabin-management system, which features Audio/Video on Demand, interactive 3-D moving map, exterior camera and wireless cabin control of lighting and monochromatic window shades at each seat via passengers’ personal electronic devices. With the SiriusXM satellite radio option, passengers can select station presets at individual seats.

While the prototype has been flying for many years, it wasn’t until March 2011 that a conforming test model achieved the design speed and altitude numbers at a weight equivalent to that of an aircraft with a finished interior and passengers.

A few glitches have caused delays. The HF120 engines initially failed ice-ingestion tests, forcing a costly redesign of engine fan blades that set the development schedule back almost a year. While the new blades are only slightly thicker, the redesign forced Honda to repeat much of the testing it had performed on the original blades. The redesign was also complicated by the fact that the engine fan is made from a blisk or single forging that includes all the blades and the fan hub.

HondaJets will be sold through a network of dealerships that are expected to construct customer sales and service centers to company standards–much the same way Honda sells automobiles. To date, the company has announced dealers in Tallahassee, Fla.; Des Moines, Iowa; Phoenix, Ariz.; Salt Lake City, Utah; Greensboro, N.C.; Toluca, Mexico; Madrid, Spain; Munich, Germany; Toronto, Montreal and Calgary, Canada; and Farnborough, UK. In addition, Honda will open a $20 million maintenance, repair and overhaul center in 2013 on its North Carolina campus. The company also plans to put its complete HondaJet parts catalog on the Internet.

Honda has begun manufacturing customer aircraft. Expect to see one soon at an airport near you.

Comments

A very determined, methodical and successful technology R&D effort transitioned into a product. Its more than a Honda Jet its a product manufacturing system as well as a service and support system all done as part of the product package.

It took over 25 years depending on where we mark the beginning. Only the resources and will of Honda can have got this plane ready for manufacturing and its reputation will give the international aviation market confidence. Were all the years of R&D strictly necessary, who knows, perhaps it’s probably the time it took to get their entire management structure familiarized and comfortable making the numerous decisions needed for the product and processes involved.

Obviously they made the investment to entrench themselves in aviation. The payoff will come from a whole line of products (engines & airplanes) developed off the tech platform developed.

While it is an elegant jet, and clearly going to be supported well, I am really surprised that it has come out with only 1180 nm NBAA range. This is not a lot and at the $4.5m plus options price range this aircraft is up against others like the Nextant 400XT with 2000 nm.

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““When I made the film The Invention of Lying, they gave me a private jet for getting back and forth between New York and London. I thought, ‘I will never use it’ but I ended up using it every weekend. You turn up, right, and the airport is completely empty. I mean, there’s just someone at the desk and then the pilot, who says, ‘Are you ready to go?’ and you say, ‘Don’t you want to see my passport?’ and he goes, ‘Oh yeah, I suppose I’d better.’”
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